China's Yangtze Memory reportedly lays off staff, evicts them from company housing
- Reference: 1675835894
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/02/08/yangtze_memory_layoff_package_includes/
- Source link:
The Chinese state-owned memory-maker let go of between five and ten percent of staff in recent weeks – a response to the effects of being added to a US trade [1]embargo list and a general economic downturn in the IC industry. According to [2]Caixin , the workers were given one month to complete their move or the option to pay amounts up to $148,000 to stay in their current accommodation.
One YTMC employee [3]reportedly confirmed that the layoffs affected "almost all departments," however not all were evicted as not all employees qualified for housing perks.
[4]Latest US blacklist spells trouble for China's biggest domestic 3D NAND supplier
[5]US pressures Asian allies to join crusade against Chinese chipmakers
[6]US chip ban left back door in Beijing-controlled Macau for months
[7]Biden seeks out Dutch support for blockade on Chinese chip industry
Apartments were reportedly offered to core managers and R&D employees at a discounted rate in the second half of 2020 as part of their total compensation packages. Five years of employment with the company would guarantee ownership, shorter service meant additional repayments of between $44,000 and $200,000 were required.
YTMC mass produces 128 and 232-layer NAND flash memory, competing against the likes of Micron, SK hynix and Samsung. Micron has [8]declared it will also lay off around ten percent of its workforce.
[9]
It's not hard to see why: global NAND flash revenue fell by 24.3 percent quarter-on-quarter for 3Q22, [10]according to analyst firm Trendforce in November 2022. Trendforce predicted Q4 2022 would bring further drops, resulting in industry revenue falling around 20 percent quarter-on-quarter as the commodity remains [11]oversupplied .
[12]
Analysts and market research firms alike [13]predicted in late 2022 that YTMC would face a difficult path as not only were restrictions put in place but also buyers outside of China became reluctant to adopt the chip shop's technology. According to TrendForce, potential mitigating strategies include the firm abandoning the 3D NAND flash market or pivoting to manufacturing logic semiconductors using a mature process.
But as YTMC is state-owned and has no obligation to report results, it remains to be seen if it will take the suggestion.
[14]
Evicting staff is in marked contrast to US tech employers, typically pay laid-off staff several months severance and offer outplacement services to find them new gigs. Where's the workers' paradise now? ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/16/us_bans_companies_it_suspects/
[2] https://www.caixinglobal.com/2023-02-04/yangtze-memory-kicks-terminated-workers-out-of-apartments-101994638.html
[3] https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3208490/top-chinese-memory-chip-maker-ymtc-said-be-laying-10-cent-workforce-after-us-sanctions
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/18/us_blacklist_spells_trouble/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/09/us_china_japan_chips/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/us_closes_macau_back_door/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/biden_dutch_asml/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/22/micron_job_cuts/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y@OA0YPwCDf-hZKYLOA9IwAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.trendforce.com/presscenter/news/20221123-11467.html
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/27/trendforce_nand_flash_prices_2022_ssd.
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y@OA0YPwCDf-hZKYLOA9IwAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/18/us_blacklist_spells_trouble/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y@OA0YPwCDf-hZKYLOA9IwAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
" in marked contrast to US tech employers"
I fail to see how this is a marked contrast to US tech employers.
The job had a perk, much like a car in the us, and if you get fired then they offer you a settlement sum to keep the car, or you hand it back. Exactly the same here, only the consequences are Much Much greater.
That said evictions from a flat because you are unwilling (or more likely unable) to buy out the remaining balance is the logical consequence of not keeping up payments. But with 1 month's notice - that is harsh!
/Rattus
I had much the same experience in Stockholm.
In Sweden, the rental market is staggeringly State-controlled. It is actually illegal to rent without permission from the State. The way it works is that as time passes, you build up points, and the more points you have, the nicer the apartments you're allowed to rent. It takes over twenty years to legally rent in central Stockholm. The State (of course) sets the rent price, and it is very, very low. You then have a secondary market, where tenants can sublet, without the knowledge or consent of the owner, and they mark up the rent to the market price. AirBnB helped enormously until it was basically banned.
It's hell for everyone, in the name of being fair, which it absolutely is not, and of course the ultimate effect is to profoundly discourage the construction of new properties, so there's *also* a crippling shortage of properties, too.
Given all this, when companies want to hire people from outside Sweden, they have to provide housing for them, because it's impossible to legally rent in Stockholm, and a nightmare to illegally rent (and no one coming in from the outside can cope with that market).
What that means is the company turns to private companies which hold their own stock of property and you pick one and pay the rent - and so when you leave or lose your job, you also lose your apartment.
The best place to rent, IME, has always been London. I'm sure plenty of people think it's bad there, but it can be and is, in so many European cities, *profoundly* worse.
Re: I had much the same experience in Stockholm.
Did not know that - thanks for that insight, have worked in Stockhold a fair bit (staying in hotels for a couple of days) but wasn't aware of that rental market.
Re: adding unnecessary steps purely for the sake of legal compliance
I think you have misunderstood the swedish rental market (I live here)
Yes. There is state housing, for which you have to apply and there is a points system. ANd in Stockholm you might be waiting 20 years to get a place, particularly if you are picky about where you live.
But it's not illegal to rent privately. Far from it.
What is different is that your building (most people in cities live in apartments) or estate will have a board (normally a mixture of residents and a holding company). And they can set their own rules about renting. E.g one of my first buildings an owner could only rent an apartment out for 2 years maximum. They would have to let the board know, and they could theoretically say no to the person moving in (very rare). But at the end of 2 years, the owner either had to move back in, or sell (their rationale is that it allowed for people moving jobs, starting relationships without having to burn all their bridges, but they wanted a mostly stable population in the building).
Then the next place I moved - no restriction - owners could rent as long as they wished. There were rules about access, and overcrowding, but that was pretty much it.
So, absolutely not the case that you can't rent privately.
What might hold back foreign "visitors" is that most places want you to have a swedish tax number. For people who are just being shipped in, but are not residing inSweden, then yes, companies might acquire their own housing stock because those people will find it difficult to rent privately.
It was amusing to see the way Americans get fired as some sort of role model, particularly after watching the way the second richest man in the world did it to his employees.
To provide a different viewpoint: seen from France, there's hardly any difference between the way Chinese and American companies fire people. Both are mindbogglingly scary, and thankfully happening in far-away places.
Tough on employees, but dropping NAND demand against what they are supplying is good for consumer pricing.
Evicting staff is in marked contrast to US tech employers, typically pay laid-off staff several months severance and offer outplacement services to find them new gigs. Where's the workers' paradise now?
Is it a standard behaviour for US companies to offer flats to employees after 5 years of work?
According to 'Asia Times', [1]YTMC being blacklisted by the US is less a question of security than a way to slash competition
[1] https://asiatimes.com/2022/12/why-us-really-blacklisted-chinas-ymtc/